Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Monday, November 23rd I went to see Timothy Goodman speak at the Pennsylvania College of Art and Design. The title of his presentation was Getting Away With Shit. Timothy Goodman talked about his life as a designer starting from when he was a kid to present day. At first, Goodman went to community college and worked as a house painter but always dreamed of going to school in New York City. He finally got the chance and went to school the School of Visual Arts in New York City. A few years after graduating, he got a job at Apple and moved to California, but not for long. Soon he was back in New York City and working for himself as an illustrator/designer. His latest projects have been "40 Days of Dating" with his close friend Jessica Walsh. They decided to do this together because Jessica, how is a hopeless romantic and jumps into relationships too quickly, and Timothy, he is a commitment phobe, both wanted to know what they were doing wrong in relationships. They chose 40 days because of it is a very biblical number and it just seemed like the right amount of time to really get to know someone but not be annoyed by them. After the finished the 40 days, they put all their findings together and published a book, not long after that Hollywood producers were contacting them asking to make this concept into a television show or a movie. As of now Warner Bros. owns the rights and may just be working on a movie. Another project Timothy is working on is "instatherapy." Timothy writes his own quotes and posts them on Instagram, he says this is a type of therapy to him; he writes down his thoughts and feelings and then just puts them out for the world to see. Timothy has another project he uses Instagram for and that is "memoriesofagirlineverknew." Goodman takes sections of paragraphs he wrote after a relationship he had with a girl he really liked failed and posts them on Instagram.

Of course, he explained how he gets away with shit as a designer. In order to do so one must know the rules, have some audacity, never ask permission (only forgiveness...sometimes), listen to yourself, get in your work, and always stay/be young. One project Timothy Goodman was a part of years ago was helping design the CNN Grill where he created a neon light sign that looked like a penis but no one seemed to notice.

During the Q&A portion, one girl asked him what advise he has for designer block. His response was perfect, he said "why keep running yourself into a brick wall? Just go another way."

Timothy Goodman's presentation was great and I absolutely love his work. I am glad I got to go to this presentation.